Voice Picking In The Warehouse

With order picking inaccuracies a major concern in distribution warehouses, voice directed picking software might be the answer jan/san distributors are looking for. From a distributor’s perspective, the big draw is voice technology’s potential to boost both speed and accuracy of order picking in the warehouse. In fact, recent studies on the technology show that picking accuracy is dramatic, and an accuracy rate of 99.9 percent is usually achieved. Also, if a warehouse is moving to voice directed picking from a traditional paper-based system, order-picking errors are usually reduced by 80 to 90 percent.

Voice picking can also be a productivity enhancer. First, you have verification that warehouse personnel are picking the correct items and you have instant updates of your computer records. This eliminates not only picking the wrong item or wrong quantity, but also keying incorrect data into the computer system.

Voice picking also makes the data entry operation hands free. Pickers don’t need to hold an RF device or scan a barcode to confirm a pick task, thereby leaving both hands free for physical movement of goods.

Another added bonus to today’s voice picking software is the solution’s multiple language capability, which allows the pickers to perform all aspects of their job using the language in which they are most comfortable. Common languages offered besides English and Spanish include French, German and Russian to name a few.